1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an automatic telephone-answering and message-recording apparatus which sends out previously recorded answer messages (outgoing messages) before recording the messages (incoming messages) left by a calling party, and, more particularly, to such an apparatus which can repeatedly reproduce an already recorded calling party's message in response to remote control signals transmitted through telephone lines to the apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Telephone-answering and message recording apparatus of the type having a remote control function can be classified into the following two categories:
1. an apparatus with a message recording tape on which the remote control signal is recorded; and PA1 2. an apparatus provided with a contact-mounted tape counter so constructed as to be reset in response to the received remote control signal.
In the former apparatus, the incoming remote control signal is recorded on the incoming message-recording tape as well as being detected to set the tape in its reproducing condition and to rewind the tape to a predetermined start position. The tape is then played back to reproduce an already recorded calling party's message. This playing-back operation continues until the recorded remote control signal is reproduced, at which time the playback operation is stopped.
In the latter apparatus, the tape counter is reset when the message recording tape is rewound. The tape is then played back. The distance of the tape travel is measured by the counter, and the counter continues its operation until the tape is played back to its original starting point, at which time the apparatus is released to terminate the playback operation.
Those apparatuses mentioned above, however, cannot function to rewind the message recording tape to a requested position in response to a remote control signal which arrives during a playback operation. The reason for this deficiency is that the incoming message-recording tape will be rewound upon every detection of the reproduced remote control signal if the above-mentioned new rewind function during reproduction is applied to a prior art apparatus as it is, since such an apparatus is designed so as to detect the first remote control signal in the incoming message recording state.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,649,762 discloses a prior art automatic telephone-answering and message-recording apparatus of the type to which this invention applied, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,997 discloses this type of apparatus including a prior art means for playing back a calling party's recorded message in response to a remote control signal.